The Rat Terrier is an American breed that is the result of working with the Fox Terrier, Bull Terrier, Manchester Terrier, and Old English White Terrier, to name a few.

Being a farm dog and hunter, the need for the Rat Terrier to catch prey and pests drove breeders to start adding new strains to the breed in the 1910s and 1920s. A Rat Terrier appeared alongside Shirley Temple in the 1930s movie, "The Little Colonel."

In the Midwest, the Rat Terrier was bred to Whippets and Italian Greyhounds to produce a more versatile and quick-footed dog who could help control the jackrabbit problem. The new and improved Rat Terrier was able to keep up with the fast-moving rodent and continued to prove his value.

In the Southern and Central American regions, the Rat Terrier was bred to the Beagle to create a more pack-oriented dog. This is where the Rat Terrier earned his strong sense of smell; his speed came from the Whippet.

In the 1920s, Toy Fox Terriers that were too big for their own breeding program were introduced into the Rat Terrier's breeding program. With this newest strain, Rat Terriers began producing their own toy-sized offspring.

President Theodore Roosevelt is said to have named the breed but not everyone agrees. He called his own dog, who had solved the White House rat problem, a Rat Terrier. There is debate on whether the dog that President Roosevelt owned was in fact the same Rat Terrier as appears today. The short-legged dog that Roosevelt had has become the accepted breed standard for the Terrier named after him, and the Teddy Roosevelt Terrier is also known as the short-legged Rat Terrier.

The Rat Terrier was a common sight on farms between the 1910s and 1940s but eventually started to decline after farmers began using poison to control rodent populations. By the 1950s, the breed was no longer widespread. A handful of breeders sustained the breed until a re-emergence in the late 1970s.

The Decker Rat Terrier is a strain of the breed that is gaining popularity. It first began with a dog owned by avid hunter Milton Decker, who felt his own dog, Henry, possessed terrific qualities that he wanted to preserve in his breeding program.

He succeeded in producing a large Rat Terrier with a fixed ear set--a hunting dog who would even retrieve from water. The Deckers were used for hunting wild pig, deer, cougar and bear as well as in the more traditional Rat Terrier roles. Even though the Decker Rat Terrier is considered feisty and tough, he maintains all the traits of a wonderful companion.

In 1972, the first hairless Rat Terrier was born and from that little hairless female a new strain of Rat Terrier was developed. The hairless Rat Terrier is now known as the American Hairless Terrier. The American Hairless Terrier comes in two sizes, miniature and standard.

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